Hoping against hope that a McCain administration would take the lead in the Mideast peace process? Don’t even bother. At a weekend retreat hosted by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, two McCain advisers indicated that a McCain presidency would have more pressing foreign policy matters to attend to. According to a recent JTA report:
(McCain adviser Max) Boot said pursuing an Israeli-Palestinian deal would not be a top priority in a McCain administration, adding that as many as 30 crises across the globe require more urgent attention.
I’m pretty curious to know the list of 30 crises that somehow rate “more urgent” than the longest-running conflict in the Mideast that continues to contribute to insecurity for Israelis, misery for Palestinians, and ongoing instability for the region…
A hopeful gesture in response to tragedy: the family of an Arab man killed in a terror attack has made a contribution toward the Arabic translation of Amos Oz’s memoir, “A Tale of Love and Darkness” to further the cause of coexistence.
In 2004 George Khoury (right), an Israeli Arab student, was shot while running in the French Hill neighborhood of Jerusalem by a gunman from the Fatah Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade who mistook him for a Jew. Khoury’s family decided to make the donation in an effort to help create greater cultural understanding between Arabs and Jews. The translation is expected to be distributed in the Israeli Arab sector and eventually in other Arab countries.
Khoury came from a prominent Jerusalem family known for their efforts at promoting Jewish-Arab coexistence. Khoury’s father, Elias, is a famous East Jerusalem lawyer who has represented Palestinian political figures and Israeli Arabs in court. George, the middle son in the Khoury family, had participated in interfaith dialogues in Germany and England. He had been studying economics and international relations at the Hebrew University and planned to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a lawyer before he was killed.
The translator of “Tale,” an Israeli Arab scholar named Jamal Gnaim, said he loved the book and spoke of his “sacred” efforts to stay true to Oz’s vision:
(The book represents) Oz from the point of view of his language and associations, and Hebrew literature and Zionist thought, and it’s important that others get to know this milieu.
As yesterday was Rosh Hodesh Elul, I thought I’d share this remarkable new year’s greeting: a clip of the Palestinian partners of the Geneva Initiative wishing their Jewish friends a Shanah Tovah. Though the clip seems to have been prepared last year before the Annapolis summit (and even though the promise of those days have been largely squandered) I still receive it in a spirit of hope. For me, at least, this greeting offers the perfect New Year’s message for our dark and disillusioned times.
PS: Listening to Palestinians offer Jewish New Year greetings in Hebrew reminded me once more of the irony that a significantly larger proportion of Palestinians speak the Jewish native language than Jewish Israelis speak Arabic (or than the world’s Jews speak Hebrew itself, for that matter…)
As previous posts have mentioned, a recent Shalom Achshav report has charted the dramatic increase in Israeli settlements since Annapolis began. For me, these are most sobering words in a profoundly depressing document:
In recent years the trend has accelerated to eliminate the Green Line through intensive construction intended to create a territorial connection between the blocks of settlements and isolated settlements in the heart of the West Bank.
Whether Israel’s leaders are unwilling or simply unable to stem the settlements is moot at this point. The bottom line: the door is closing fast on a two-state solution. (Indeed, when a Palestinian moderate such as Sari Nusseibeh publically inclines toward a one-state solution, I’d say the peace process is approaching a point of reckoning.)
Please know that Brit Tzedek v’Shalom is circulating a Rabbinic High Holiday letter to Obama and McCain, urging the next President to make resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a top priority of the incoming administration. It’s already been signed by over 150 rabbis, cantors and rabbinical students. Check and see if your rabbi’s name is on it and if not, encourage her/him to sign on.
Abie Nathan has died and the Jewish world has lost a truly original voice for peace. He was and will remain one of my big, big heroes. Boy do we need him more than ever.
How do I even begin? Born in Persia; grew up in India; volunteers as a fighter pilot during Israel’s 1948 War of Independence; becomes a prominent Israeli peace activist in the 1960s, flys to Egypt in his plane (the “Shalom 1″) and asks to meet with Egyptian President Nasser (is arrested, deported to Israel, where he is arrested again…); begins a hunger strike in 1978 to protest Israeli settlements; meets with PLO officials long before it was fashionable; flies around the world spearheading relief efforts in Cambodia, Biafra, Bangladesh, Ethiopia etc……
Most of us, of course, know Abie as the founder of the great pirate radio station “Voice of Peace.” The VOP originated from his “Peace Ship” - reportedly bought with the help of John Lennon - broadcasting 24 hours a day from outside Israeli territorial waters. VOP sent out great music along with Nathan’s own unique commentary and reports of his peace activist exploits. For many Americans bumming about Israel in the 1970s and 1980s, Kol Shalom was the go-to radio station. Who among us will forget its famous tag-line: “From somewhere in the Mediterranean…” (I’m sure I still have my VOP T-shirt around somewhere…)
Ha’aretz reports that a new team will debut next week at the Australian Football League’s International Cup, a joint Palestinian-Israeli team dubbed, the “Peace Team”. More »
While the Israeli government has allowed four students with Fulbrights to leave Gaza for study abroad, there are still hundreds more denied permission to leave, according to Gisha, the Legal Center for Freedom of Movement. This is a no brainer. Even Condoleeza Rice got this one right:
“If you cannot engage young people and give them a complete horizon to their expectations and to their dreams, then I don’t know that there would be any future for Palestine.”
There is an online movement to pressure the Israeli government to grant permission to these Palestinian students to study abroad (in Universities to which they have already been accepted).
Israel is, as it perhaps should, simultaneously planning for peace and war with Syria, and, well just war with Syria’s neighbors.
Planning for the worst, the IDF is preparing for a simultaneous attack from Syria, Iran and Hezbullah. Syria and Iran have a mutual defense pact, which could prove a hinderance to peace.
Punditry and rumors presume that Olmert is attempting to push a peace deal for normalized relations with Syria, and a withdrawal from the Golan Heights, before his upcoming resignation from office. The two countries have been in indirect talks via Turkey for many years, both secret and public, and are edging their way towards direct negotiation.
From what I’ve learned about peace negotiations over the years, if Israel and Syria are actually to sit down together officially, face-to-face, it will only be because an agreement was made ahead of time–i.e., if there is a sit-down and a summit later this summer or early fall, there will likely be a negotiated, signed agreement that results from it. Practically speaking, putting a rush on such diplomatic developments achieves two things: 1) leaves Olmert a golden nugget for his embarassingly tarnished legacy, and 2) once Israel is in the full swing of the general election, cold peace deals with unfriendly neighbors will certainly be put on the backburner.
some personal thoughts on the prospects of peace with Syria after the jump More »
These great evils that come about between the human individuals who inflict them upon one another because of purposes, desires, opinion, and beliefs… all of them derive from ignorance.
Maimonides, The Guide of the Perplexed III:11 trans. Shlomo Pines.
(Michael Schwartz’ new Hebrew translation is here.)
May it be Your will that you banish wars and the shedding of blood from the world,
and that you draw forth a great and wondrous peace into the world.
Nation shall no longer lift up sword against nation and they shall no longer study war.
Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, Likutei Tefilot
The existence of war undermines the possibility of civil society, democratic politics and pursuit of justice. War is not diplomacy by other means. War is the unleashing of uncontrolled and uncontrollable violence. In our times, when omnicide is a very real possibility, any “local,” “conventional” war can and probably will spin out of control and lead to massive destruction and death. Any “local,” “conventional” war can also lead to the total destruction of the planet. Perhaps the most important thing we can do to further the cause of justice, is to oppose war. Period.
These are two of the many wars which don’t get much press.
On 2 January 2008, the government announced its withdrawal from a ceasefire agreement with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).…The humanitarian crisis is deepening, abuses of human rights by both sides are increasing, and those calling for peace are being silenced.
In addition to heavy fighting in the north, the first weeks of 2008 have seen the assassinations of a government minister and a Tamil opposition member of parliament, multiple bombings in Colombo, a wave of deadly attacks on civilians in the majority Sinhalese south, and widespread disappearances and killings of non-combantants in the north and east. More than 5,000 combatants and civilians are estimated to have been killed over the past two years. At least 140,000 have fled intensified fighting in the north, and more are likely to be forced out if the military continues its push into Tiger-controlled territory. (ICG Asia Report #146)
“woe to the nation that at this time celebrates the release of an animal who crushed the skull of a four-year-old child.”-Ehud Olmert
May our hearts and prayers be with the Regev and Goldwasser families, and the Israeli people. And may peace be upon the souls of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev.
This was not a victory for anybody. Not for Hezbollah. Not for Lebanon. Not for Israel. Not for Nasrallah. Not for Olmert. Not for the families of the captive soldiers. Not for the families of the released prisoners. Not for Samir Kuntar. Not for the Haran family. Nobody is a victor.
Obama and McCain might not have been there to give bellicose speeches, but just a couple of weeks ago, over 140 Jewish activists from across the country took part in Brit Tzedek v’Shalom’s largest-ever DC conference, bringing the real pro-Israel, pro-peace message to the nation’s capital.
The conference included 115 Congressional visits, presentations by MK Yossi Beilin and Mideast analyst Daniel Levy, interactive activist trainings, and speeches by U.S. Representatives Henry Waxman (D-CA), Charles Boustany (R-LA), and Mike Capuano (D-MA).
Check out this six-minute highlight reel for a taste of what an American Jewish grassroots peace movement can look like.
Some new developments in the prisoner swap with Hezbollah:
Yesterday, Ha’aretz reported that Israel is exhuming the bodies of Hezbollah guerillas fulfilling part of their end of the prisoner swap for the captured soldiers Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, captured June 2006. In that article, the remains of 200 Lebanese will be transferred at the border crossing at Rosh HaNikra.
In today’s news Israel’s High Court rejected an appeal against releasing Samir Kuntar, the Lebanese convicted murderer imprisoned in Israel since 1979. In that article, Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Hezbollah, is quoted as saying that reports that Regev and Goldwasser are dead are simply “speculation.”
Let us all hope and pray that he is not being a dickwad being truthful.
In a 22-3 vote, the Israeli cabinet approved a measure that would allow for Samir Kuntar, terrorist serving 4 life sentences for 1979 murders, to be exchanged for Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser who were kidnapped by Hezbollah in June 2006.
Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann, Housing Minister Ze’ev Boim and Finance Minister Ronny Bar-On opposed the measure while the remaining 22 ministers voted in favor.
The exchange will likely occur on German soil in the coming days.More »
In the past couple of weeks there has been a fury of news about the possible return of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, and for good cause after two years of nervous waiting.
The negotiated deal was ready to be implemented between June 20-25, but earlier in the week, Hezbollah added some Palestinian prisoners to their list, Olmert shuffled his feet, and then all of a sudden Mossad is declaring that the captives are likely dead. After an outcry against the political move from the Israeli public and specifically the captive soldiers’ families the cabinet is now set to discuss a written deal with Hezbollah on Sunday.
In a very surprising change in the position of the Israeli government, Ha’aretz reports that the IDF may soon declare Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev “killed in action.” The two soldiers were kidnapped by Hezbollah in June of 2006, which triggered the summer war two years ago.
In recent reports, the government was said to be in negotiations with Hezbollah via German mediators on an exchange of Samir Kuntar, a convicted murderer held by Israel since 1979, for the two captive soldiers. The government announced that were the two soldiers declared “killed in action,” there would certainly be no deal exchanging Kuntar for their bodies.
While last week there were reports of an imminent deal to be carried out between June 20-25, beginning yesterday the Israeli media reported that the deal was in danger of collapsing after Hezbollah added Palestinian prisoners being released as part of the negotiated deal. Now, it seems that Israel is possibly going to declare the soldiers dead, thereby ending any negotiations regarding Samir Kuntar. It seems likely that Israel would continue to negotiate to retrieve the remains of the soldiers, as has been the historic practice of the Israeli government.
The announcement comes as a shock to the families of the captive soldiers, who were under the impression their sons would be home this week. According to Miki Goldwasser, mother of Ehud,
“I ask what happened now that they remembered two years after the abduction to make such a move…Why now? Why when the deal is closed and it is the best possible deal?”
The reported deal to exchange Samir Kuntar for the Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev was overwhelmingly supported in the Knesset and specifically, the cabinet. The deal also received support from the Israeli public, and most importantly, was supported by the families of the captive soldiers.
Ehud’s wife, Karnit, said:
“We are at the end of a very difficult day in the Knesset, on the verge of humiliating…At the end of the day I get a call that the file has been transferred to the chief military rabbi. I don’t have time to notify the family before I hear it on the news. I am furious. This is a terrible and shameful day for the state of Israel,”
According to the report, she added that the family has been reduced to begging the ministers to agree to a prisoner swap.
It seems that the Olmert administration picked up on the demand to release Palestinian soldiers as an excuse to get out of the deal. It seems that they had come so far in the negotiation to release Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev. It seemed like it had been successful and the soldiers would be freed. And now they’re dead?
What goes through the mind of Prime Minister who has almost no support from his people, who denies the will of his electorate, who denies the will of his cabinet, who denies the will of his parliament, who denies the will of the families who urge him to free Samir Kuntar to free their sons?
How is it that this man is even still in office? Is this a sign that Israeli democracy has matured to the point that bi-annual elections are a thing of the past? Or, perhaps, this is a sign that Israeli apathy has hit an all-time high, and a nation that once held the threat of toppling governments in a day now bears the corruption and dysfunction.
According to the report linked above, the deal received widespread support from the government and the public, only the PMO and the defense establishment do not support the deal. Is this an example of when the army and government “know more than the people”? Or is this another example of how the IDF and the PMO are completely out of touch with the perspectives and will of the Israeli public.
I, for one, am a bit dismayed and a lot surprised.
It is here in the Palestinian territories that you see the worst side of Israel . . . Yet it is also here that you see the very best side of Israel.
Alright, there’s nothing Earth shattering here. No brand new observation that we haven’t seen before, but Nicholas Kristoff does it right today. Too often our friends on the right laud Israel’s greatness while ignoring the underbelly, and too often our friends on the left scourge Israel for its mistakes, while missing it’s beauty. If you want a balanced opinion, read Mr. Kristoff’s essay. It’s an easy read, and it’s good for the soul.
**This just in : BBC News clip of Olmert interview broadcast today on BBC Arabic Television (I’m looking for the full interview). Longer BBC clip, more detailed article.
The New York Times reports that Israel has offered Lebanon talks on peace negotiations and land exchange. These talks are referring, of course, to the disputed Shebaa Farms.
Part of the negotiation, according to the New York Times, will include Israel releasing maps of land mines and cluster bombs left behind from the 2006 summer war.
This news follows reports that talks have started with Syria, via Turkish mediators, and it seems that talks with Lebanon might be a result of those negotiations.
The news comes the same day that a truce in Gaza sets in.
And read below for Reb Yudel’s post on last year’s unofficial peace deal offered as a way to solve the stalled talks on Golan.
Is this Olmert struggling to convince his people and the world that he’s not a corrupt, incompetent buffoon? Is this the US exerting back room pressure so Bush’s legacy can be secured? Or, is this, maybe, perhaps, possibly even real? (unlikely, but I hope so).
If I learned anything from reading A Missing Peace, Dennis Ross’ major work on his experience as the lead US negotiator from 1987-2001, it is that a huge chunk of what happens in these negotiations is over-dramatized jockeying and a whole lot of PR and acting.
So, whether or not this is real, it clearly sends a message to Israel’s people, its neighbors and the world that perhaps there are partners with whom to negotiate. Likewise, it shows a willingness of Israel’s neighbors to be more comfortable making diplomatic meetings, and perhaps even ties.
Hoping against hope that a McCain administration would take the lead in the Mideast peace process? Don’t even bother. At a weekend retreat hosted by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, two McCain advisers indicated that a McCain presidency would have more pressing foreign policy matters to attend to. According to a recent JTA report:
